westchester county

How do I take better photos…

with my DSLR camera? You might be surprised to hear the answer. Do you want to create beautiful, lasting memories of family functions, sporting events and other meaningful events in your family’s life? Simply knowing the tools at your disposal will help you take high-quality photos with that DSLR you’re keeping on auto. Here are 3 settings you need to know to take better photos.

1) What is aperture?

To put it simply, the aperture setting controls the amount of light being let into the image sensor of the camera. Think of it like your pupil, the bigger it gets the more light it lets in (that’s while when it’s bright out, your pupils get small, and when it’s dark, they appear much bigger.) Unlike your pupils, which automatically adjust to the light, you can manually control the aperture of your camera by changing what’s known as the f-stop. A low f-stop like 3.5 lets in more light, and a high f-stop like 22 lets in less. In addition, the aperture controls the depth of field of your image (how in-focus certain parts are). A low f-stop will produce a higher depth of field (great for close-ups of flowers!), and a higher f-stop will produce a crisper image (great for awesome landscapes!) See the examples below:

Photo Experiment #1:

Try turning your camera to aperture priority mode (A). This will allow you to test different f-stop settings without having to worry about anything else. With the camera on aperture priority mode, the other settings on the camera will auto-adjust. Give it a try and let us know how it goes in the comments!

2) What is shutter speed?

Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter passes in front of the image sensor, thus determining how long the image sensor is exposed to light, measured in fractions of a second. A slow shutter speed lets in more light and allows for more motion blur. Sometimes this can have a cool effect like in the photo below.

Photo Experiment #2:

Turn your camera to shutter speed priority (S). Experiment with photographing moving objects. What happens when you change the speed?

3) What is ISO?

ISO is a digital setting that uses the camera’s software to boost the light in the image. And while lots of light is good, it’s important to use a high ISO sparingly, as it can cause the image to look grainy.

Let’s face it — kids can take a Scratch Programming class in many different places throughout Westchester County, or do the Hour of Code from home. There are a million and one ways to learn about 3D printing, computer programming or animation. You get the picture… And so do we.

But there’s the thing: experience. Meaningful learning is all about the experience. Knowledge retention happens when a person can put emotion behind the skills they learn.

Think about driving. Someone can show you or tell you how to drive all day long while you’re in the passenger’s seat, but until you get in the driver’s seat, get your hands on the wheel, put on your blinker, run over a few curbs and get pulled over for speeding, you really don’t learn very much. (We don’t encourage speeding, by the way! It was a metaphor…)

At the DAE, students drive. They get their hands on the tech. They try to go too fast and run into problems. We teach our kids about failure and how not to panic when something goes wrong — about how glitches are good because they teach us what we need to fix. We encourage thoughtfulness and problem solving, discussion and thinking outside the box.

Our world is so fast. It’s easy to throw information at people (especially kids) and expect them to get it. (Those kids with their iPads just know how to do all the things!) Classes at the DAE are different. They’re inclusive. They’re project-based. And they’re fun! We invite you to visit us and find out why.

Adult School in Westchester: The DAE in White Plains offers adult education classes on how to create a website, how to connect a website to a domain and how to use WordPress. Learn layouts, formatting and just enough HTML/CSS to maintain your site properly and update it accordingly.

Adults can now enroll in Digital Photography classes at the Digital Arts Experience in Westchester and surrounding communities: Scarsdale, Valhalla, Rye, Larchmont, White Plains, Tarrytown and others. In our class, students learn the three core components of a DSLR camera that will have them taking incredible photos: aperture, ISO & shutter speed.

Our classes go over the information you need in a fun, stress-free setting and we don’t bog you down with jargon.

A tight-knit community. We are all lifelong learners.An escape. Life is crazy. Tech is fun.Enthusiasts, leaders and innovators. We enjoy working with technology and get excited to share our knowledge with family and friends.Role models for our kids. Because if we don’t adapt & grow with tech, how can we expect them to?An experience. Things come and go but experiences last a lifetime.

What are your plans this March Spring Break? From the 24th to the 28th The Digital Arts Experience in Westchester County, NY will be hosting weeklong spring break programs for kids and teens ages 8-17. These programs include:

3D Minecraft Animations with Blender

3D Printing & Design

Anime/Manga Drawing

Game Programming with Java

Game Programming with Scratch

Visual FX & Video Production

Small, hands-on tech classes with a max of 6 kids per group. Each student gets their own computer to work on for the duration of the program and leaves with a completed project in their newly developed skill. We offer both moring & afternoon sessions for school breaks OR kids have the option to choose both and create a full day out of it!

This February Break, The Digital Arts Experience will be providing full or half-day long programs for kids and teens in Westchester, Fairfield and Rockland counties!

Among the classes they get to choose from are:

3D Minecraft Animations with Blender

3D Printing & Prototyping

Learn Code with Processing!

Game Programming with Scratch

Programs begin on Monday, Feb. 17th and run through Friday, Feb. 21st.

Morning session is from 9:30AM – 12:00PM and Afternoon is 1:00PM – 3:30PM.

Students will get the opportunity to work hands-on in our small classes: each individual gets their own computer, DAE 8GB flash drive to save their work on, and focus on their own project throughout the week.

It’s not too late to register! Check out our application form with detailed class times and descriptions.